MARK TWAIN

talk about Mrs. Pruyn of Albany, the sister under con-
sideration.

I proposed to take down the three sentences immedi-
ately, and doubted if even immediately would be soon
enough to get them exactly, so unsure a thing is human
testimony. It is agreed that this report is exact.

You know how absent-minded Twichell (Rev. J. H.) is
and how desolate his face is when he is in that frame. At
such times he passes the word with a friend on the street
and is not aware of the meeting at all. Twice in a week
our Clara (aged 15) had this latter experience with him
within the past month. But the second instance was too
much for her and she woke him up, in his tracks, with a
reproach—she said—

"Uncle Joe, why do you always look as if you were just
going down into the grave, when you meet a person on
the street?"

And then went on to reveal to him the funereal spec-
tacle which he presented on such occasion. Well, she has
met Twichell three times since then, and would swim the
Connecticut River to avoid meeting him the fourth. As
soon as he sights her, no matter how publicly placed, nor
how far off vshc is, he makes a bound into the air, hurls
arms and legs into all sorts of frantic gestures of delight,
and so comes prancing, skipping and pirouetting for her
like a drunken Indian entering heaven. She feels as em-
barrassed as the Almighty.

Elmira, August 18, x88p

We have been here two months, in which time Brer W.
(Whitmore, his business secretary) has written me some
three mere notes about the machine. I wrote once and
asked him to tell me anything there was to tell from time
to time. No answer. Wrote him and asked him to keep
Fred in practice while the machine is stopped. No answer.

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